And finally a wee bittie more from the Ward Forum

The Gurnmesiter has to admit that this was the finest performance he's seen from Sandy for a while. Obviously he's come a long way since he embarked on his political career and he carries a gravitas that comes with his experience at the helm. We've had a good go at him now and then on the Gurn (a few of our commentators even more so), he's the gaffer so he's fair game but you have to think ahead to a future election and seriously consider if you would want to lose him? Anyone out there think they could do it better than him? Better the devil we know than the devil we don't? But moving on to the substance of tonight's meeting, all rolled up in the usual unusual (but fair we hope) way we report things.

Sandy told Graham Vine that he had the issue over safety gates on the harbour ramps in hand. Regular Gurnites will be aware of the the health and safety concerns raised over these ramps in the Nairn blogosphere recently. Let's hope for a speedy resolution there before some bairn finds one of those ramps too inviting and takes his or her bike down the way to take a header into the harbour.

Sandy also strongly hinted that he would set aboot the co-op over the state of the Regal building and that other supermarkets were very interested into getting into Nairn and looking for sites. He didn't say that all in the same sentence lol but around the periphery of debate on Co-op/Saisnbury's issues.

Now to our other Sandy, Sandy the traffic warden. He's taking voluntary redundancy and he'll be finished in March of next year. The new inspector of police mentioned this in his report (sorry Sir, I didn't catch your name) and hopes to avoid a transistion from a preventative type of warden to a more overnight officious operation. (A concern raised by Graham Vine - a community councillor who more than makes his mark on these occasions with his astute observations). In fact we will not have a permanent replacement it seems but perhaps get folk on loan from Inverness or a summer warden. The Inspector also outlined his desire for a more visible police presence, he thinks an improvement could be made here. He also told the meeting of some serious assaults his officers had suffered in the course of their duties in keeping the streets safe for us, including a female officer being bitten several times. The clean up rate for crime in Nairn is a very healthy 69.9%, even more than the Highland average of 62.63%. We're lucky in this part of the world to have such an efficient police service.

Papers were circulated with written answers to East Nairnshire Community Council on Dial a bus issues; changes in bus time tables to the Suburban CC - Highland Council put their hands up for not alerting the CC to the changes on the Aberdeen Inverness Route. Answers on by-pass questions to Mr P Jenkins and a response to an issue raised by Sheena Baker.

A final point in relation to the street scape, Murd Dunbar raised a question from the public benches, namely that given the massive disruption that will occur in the High Street during the work, and thus would it be possible to return Leopold Street to two-way traffic for the duration, therby avoiding delays and troubles elsewhere.

That's all folks, Ward forums are to be recommended, until we get a single community council for the Royal Burgh they will remain the best show in town.